Electromagnetic modes in different topology regimes modulated by layer thickness of metal–dielectric multilayered structures based on exact transfer-matrix method

Abstract

The topology regimes of the electromagnetic modes of metal–dielectric multilayered nanostructures have been proven to be dependent on the frequencies and ratios of layer thicknesses indicated by the effective media approximation. Here, we put forward a mechanism by taking the individual layer thickness into consideration. Based on the exact transfer-matrix method with periodic boundary condition, the numerical results reveal that the modes can be modulated dramatically through individual layer thickness, which can not only change dispersion significantly of the modes in the topology regimes predicted by the effective media approximation, but also make modes in the different topology regimes possible. In practice, beam refraction of a TM-polarized Gauss incident light input into a metal–dielectric multilayered structure is also discussed.